'Frozen:' a good theme for a movie, but ...

I saw the movie Frozen the other day -- twice. Once in French and once in Spanish. There were no fish anywhere (or none that I saw) but that was okay -- at least during the running of the movie. For a brief few hours, I was not lamenting on the fact that I was sitting inside a building, and not standing in the water with a fly rod in hand.

 There were subtitles, so I could follow the general theme. While I speak a little French, I don't speak any Spanish, except to ask 'where is the bathroom?' and say 'hola,' and 'gracias' -- all of which I got to use in Mexico recently. Thanks to the subtitles, I was able to enjoy the movie thoroughly. Ultimately, however, I was jolted back to the world of fishing -- a world that, like the movie -- is frozen deeply in a weather warp that has imprisoned much of the country since, well, the end of last fishing season.

I have the good fortune to be a substitute teacher at Thornton Academy in Saco, so my assignment for the day was to show the film to the French and Spanish classes. More on that later, but Gracias, Thornton Academy, for the opportunity. I found myself drawn into the movie and lost in its simple, timeless message for a total of three hours. It lived up to its billing. I think even the students liked it, or some of them, anyway.

But watching Princess Anna and the other characters battle forces of evil behind a veil of ice ultimately got the best of me. And so I return to the forum to plead with the fishing gods for some relief. I'm not looking for a temporary restraining order, though I would have settled for that a month ago. I'm looking for a permanent injunction -- an order from some supreme authority that puts an end to this frigid madness once and for all.

Let it be clear that I'm advocating for the fish as well as we fishermen. These poor creatures, pressing their lips against the frozen ceiling above them, looking for a ray of sunshine -- or anything -- to fall from the heavens. And while trout are cold water creatures, why allow such extreme conditions? What did they do to deserve this.

Alright, it isn't about the fish. It's about me, and my fellow fishermen. But what should any creature suffer so much?

F